Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State said Friday that the Nigerian judiciary has demonstrated sufficient integrity to assure Nigerians that judgement is not for the highest bidder.
Fintiri, who spoke to newsmen at the Yola International Airport on his return to Adamawa after the Supreme Court judgement of Wednesday which affirmed his election, said his personal experience with the judiciary gives him cause to trust in its judgements.
“I have never lost faith in the judiciary. They have been standing firm and doing their job. They have never allowed judgement to be on the shelf like Hudu Ari did under INEC,” Fintiri said.
In referring to Hudi Ari, the governor meant the state resident electoral officer who was suspended after he declared a winner for the election when results were yet to be fully collated in March 2023.
In its judgement on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that what Hudu did was criminal because he was, in the first place, not the right person to declare a winner as he was not the returning officer.
Hudu had declared Fintiri’s strongest opponent in that election, Senator Aishatu Ahmed (Binani) of the All Progressives Congress, APC, after which the talk of the town was that Hudu collected N2 billion to brazenly declare a winner of a yet-to-be-concluded election process.
